![]() Thinking about the growth of fulfillment and distribution centers in general, maybe these highway warehouse communities with jobs that pay increasingly respectable wages are what the future of the working class looks like. Now consider Amazon’s recent announcement that it’s making another big hiring push at its fulfillment centers with jobs paying an average starting wage of $18 an hour - up 20% since 2018. So when you have multiple large warehouses operated by different companies packed along both sides of the highway in close proximity, you can be talking about a cluster employing many thousands of workers. These warehouses also provide jobs to large numbers of people an 800,000-square-foot Amazon building employs between 1,000 and 1,500 full-time workers. Highway proximity is a must so that trucks can quickly get in and out. The need for speedy deliveries makes it important to be close to large concentrations of customers, but because the facilities require so much land, hundreds of thousands of square feet or more, they tend to be on the outskirts of cities where land is abundant and cheap. Retail and e-commerce goliaths and Walmart have distribution facilities everywhere, and while they may have the biggest footprint, companies that make building materials have their fair share, as do other e-commerce players like pets-supplies company Chewy.Įconomic realities dictate where these facilities get built. Today what’s most noteworthy is the transition to humongous warehouses and distribution centers, both currently in use and many more being built. It used to be that when you were driving out of a metro area on a highway you’d note the change in scenery as it went from urban to rural. They’re not much in the spotlight yet, but making these modern-day company towns more livable for the working class might be a better approach to solving inequality - with a higher likelihood of success - than continuing to fight against entrenched interests in coastal cities and high-cost parts of metro areas. ![]() These are places where working-class jobs are being created in large numbers and where wages already are rising. Local governments are encouraged to raise minimum wages, change their zoning laws and build more housing, particularly in affluent communities that are squeezing out the lower class.īut what if you shifted that focus to a different kind of community? Consider these burgeoning new places strung along the interstate and other highways leading away from urban cores, populated by warehouses and fulfillment centers that are being built to serve the needs of e-commerce customers. The campaign against economic inequality has put a bull’s-eye on cities.
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